Interview With Ben Schorr: Microsoft, Cloud Computing, And More

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When I attended ABA Techshow with the MyCase team earlier this year, I caught up with some of my favorite movers and shakers in the legal technology space. I talked to them about legal technology, law practice management, marketing, and more.

Ben Schorr, a regular speaker at Techshow and a Microsoft aficionado, took some time out of his busy schedule to share his thoughts on Microsoft, the benefits of cloud computing, and more. Make sure to watch the video recording of the interview or read the full transcript below for his wisdom on all things legal tech:

Niki Black: Hi, this is Niki Black. I’m here at the ABA Techshow in Chicago. I’m here with Ben Schorr, a legal technologists with Roland, Schorr & Tower. Thanks so much for being with us.

Ben Schorr: My pleasure, Niki.

Niki Black: I have a couple questions for you, especially because you are the author of a number of books about Microsoft for lawyers. So the first question I have for you is why do you think Microsoft products are so popular with lawyers?

Ben Schorr: Microsoft did a pretty big first mover advantage, especially in the early 90s when the first versions of Microsoft Word shipped, which were the Microsoft products that were really big in business. Like Word and later Excel and eventually the first Outlook. They had a big advantage for market share both in the corporate level and then of course for lawyers. And with Word especially that’s how it sort of evolved too, because lawyers are primarily Word preferred as you probably remembered way back in the day. But then when all the corporations and all the clients went to Word, the lawyers did too.

Niki Black: That makes a lot of sense. So, my other question for you is Microsoft recently released some cloud products actually targeted towards the legal market. Do you think the fact that Microsoft has done this is going to help lawyers get more comfortable or move into the cloud.

Ben Schorr: I think in time. It’s a different model for a lot of them. There’s a lot of, I wish I had a different word to use, paranoia or fear a little bit about security. So, I think there are some concerns there, but I think gradually as they come to understand it better, they’ll feel more comfortable with it. It does help that big companies like Microsoft are putting out products that are accessible, that they can understand and they can get to without having to have a computer science degree.

So, I think that’s definitely helping the cloud option. Office 365, the outcome of that has been unbelievable. We get calls everyday from client referrals waiting for office 365. So it’s been really remarkable to see how that may affect other cloud services as well.

Nicole Black is an attorney and the Legal Technology Evangelist at MyCase. Her legal career spans nearly two decades and she has extensive litigation experience. She was named an inaugural ABA Legal Rebel in 2009 and an inaugural Fastcase 50 in 2011. She is also a well known legal technology author, journalist, and speaker. She wrote "Computing for Lawyers" (2012) and co-authored "Social Media: The Next Frontier" (2010), both published by the American Bar Association. She also co-authors "Criminal Law in New York," a Thomson West treatise. She often speaks at conferences about the intersection of law, mobile computing and Internet-based technology. She can be reached at niki.black@mycase.com.